The Apparatus
The Apparatus is a powerful, well-organized criminal enterprise. They have influence worldwide, and many of their operative have encountered Dick Tracy. The Apparatus' Formative Years From Dick Tracy's first case, in which the newly-appointed detective attempted to rescue Tess Trueheart from the City's most powerful crime kingpin, the Big Boy, there were indications that some sort of national organized crime cartel was weaving itself into the very fabric of American society. Dick Tracy would spend considerable time attempting to thwart the schemes of this organization throughout his career. Big Boy's gang operated in Tracy's City and throughout the surrounding metropolitan area, but had contacts all across the country. It was through such contacts that, for example, Big Boy's gang was able to import Stooge Viller from New York City to Tracy's city. Numerous attempts to kill Tracy had proved unavailing, so Viller attempted to frame Tracy on a counterfeiting charge, thus jeopardizing Tracy's law enforcement career. A few years later, "Cut" Famon and his brother "Muscle" would use the suburb of Homeville as a base for controlling the gang's operations. They would be thwarted in this by Dick Tracy, who had just been appointed Police Chief by the reform government that had been recently elected. Other cases would make it clear just how far-reaching this national organization was. For example,Krome, a professional contract killer from back east, was revealed to be part of an organization then identified by the sobriqet "Crime, Inc." Additionally, James “Trigger" Doom, working under the Big Boy's apparent successor, Czar Rennis, was assigned to extend the local gang's reach to rural areas downstate, and particularly to the small village of Georgetown, where Constable Ferret was in charge of the tiny local police force. The Apparatus in the 50s By the 1950's, the local branch had apparently been taken over by a shadowy figure known as "The King". The wife of one of the King's subordinates, Fortson Knox, deciding to turn state's evidence in order to get consideration for having killed her husband. She revealed to Tracy that her victim had been a major figure in what she called "the Syndicate". While simultaneously trying to track down the self-employed home invader, Crewy Lou, Tracy was gathering evidence that would lead to the King's conviction. The King became the first in a series of major crime bosses, each one succeeding the other, whom Tracy would face throughout the '50's. The King was followed by George "Mr. Crime" Alpha, who was revealed to be the "boss of all crime in America", rather than only in Tracy's locale. Upon Alpha's death, his seat at the national commission was, for a very short time, occupied by Odds Zonn. Zonn, in turn, was followed by William "Willie the Fifth" Millyun. Each would clash with Tracy, and each was defeated. The Apparatus Reveals Itself Late in 1969, the term "The Apparatus" was, for the first time, used to describe a criminal cartel. The Apparatus wanted to extend its criminal reach to the Moon. Knowing of Tracy's friendship with Diet Smith (whose corporation was heavily involved in lunar industrial and business operations) they decided to take the rather extreme measure of putting out a contract on Tracy. The Apparatus assigned two of its most adept hit men, Two-Finger and Nick the Assassin, to the job. First an attempt was made to fire-bomb Tracy's home. They succeeded in burning down the residence, but Tracy survived, though he was temporarily blinded. When Tracy proved to be almost as effective while blind, a second attempt was made. The plan was to simply shoot Tracy as he was walking through a park. Tracy, whose sight had returned by this time, had been alerted to the imminent attempt. Tracy managed to kill his would-be murderer in the ensuing shoot-out, using a rifle that had been camouflaged to look like a blind man's white cane. The members of the Apparatus's governing board were later killed attempting to escape. It was not made clear in this sequence whether the Apparatus was the same organization as "the Syndicate" with which the above-mentioned mobster kingpins had all been affiliated, or was a completely independent organization. Big Boy's Open Contract The "Apparatus" term would be used again when Big Boy was released from prison on compassionate grounds. Gravely ill from a disease that was slowly killing him, the once-mighty mob boss had only a few months to live. It was now revealed that, not only had Big Boy's local gang been a subsidiary of "the national crime syndicate," but that he had been the most influential and powerful figure on the national commission. It was further revealed that "The Apparatus" was a term sometimes applied to "the national crime syndicate." In other words, it was one more way of referring to that criminal cartel that was already been known variously as "The Mafia," "La Cosa Nostra," "the Mob," "the Syndicate," "the Organization," etc. The local branch of the Apparatus in Tracy's City would sometimes be referred to as "Big Boy's Outfit," or simply "The Outfit." Big Boy no longer wielded the influence over the national Apparatus, or even the local Outfit, that he once did. He would complain about his s=reduced status of only having "one vote" on the National Commission. For this fall from power he blamed Dick Tracy, and he craved revenge. He knew that the Apparatus was reluctant to put out contracts on police officers, particularly over issues of personal vengeance. Since the Apparatus' prior attempt to eliminate Tracy had been a disaster, they would not be anxious to repeat the mistake. Nevertheless, though Big Boy no longer wielded the power he once did, he was still quite wealthy. He issued a one million dollar bounty to anyone who could kill the detective, thus bypassing authority of the Apparatus. After several attempts were made on Tracy's life, Tracy vowed to the press that he would wage "open war" on the Apparatus by transfering from his position as head the Police Department's Detective Bureau and taking over the Organized Crime Bureau. His message reached his intended audience and three upper-level members of the Apparatus visited Big Boy personally. They informed Big Boy that they would halt his Open Contract by countering it with another million dollar Open Contract on anyone who would attempt to murder Tracy. However, both Tracy's efforts and those of the Apparatus had the opposite effect that they hoped it would. The challenge appealed to Johnny "The Iceman" Snow, a free-lance hitman. Snow believed that killing the "un-killable" Tracy while dodging the most powerful criminal organization in the world (thus earning himself enough to retire and live in luxury for the rest of his life) would be the crowning act of his career. The Organized Crime Bureau's investigation of both Big Boy's Open Contract and an Apparatus hit on E.X. Reywal, a state's witness who was murdered, led Tracy to believe there was a corrupt officer in the OCB hindering the investigations. He asked Chief Patton to put Lizz and Sam Catchem under his authority as fellow agents of the OCB to plug the leak. After Snow was mortally wounded by Tracy in a shoot-out, he revealed everything he knew about the Apparatus and their connection to Reywal's murder (which Snow had committed) and identified Inspector Price as the informant on the Apparatus' payroll. The Big Boy, apoplectic over the failure of his plan, died in bed just as Tracy and Catchem were at his door to serve an arrest warrant. The Apparatus's Further Operations The Apparatus continued to operate multiple criminal endeavors. A few months the death of Big Boy, an Apparatus agent worked with the art thief Art Dekko to arrange the sale of several stolen artworks. The Apparatus had the District Attorney and members of the Police Commission on their payroll along with a few other city officials with ties to "solid citizens". When Chief Patton announced his impending retirement, he also declared his intention to reveal the corruption in his City's government in a book co-written by Kasper Hackett (an unscrupulous ghost writer). After Pat was later found shot and near death, Deputy Chief Climer took over and dismantled the Major Crimes Unit headed by Tracy. This was due in part to Tracy's launching a secret investigation of the DA and the Police Commission, which revealed their interaction with an Apparatus connection. Patton eventually recovered, the corruption in the Police Department was revealed, and Dick Tracy returned to his position on the force. The Apparatus was weakened, but was still operational. The next time the Apparatus was heard from was when the hugely successful actress, B.U. Tiffil, was in town to appear in a play co-starring Vitamin Flintheart. An Apparatus operative proved to be involved in an attempt to extort money from the people behind her success. Underworld Challenges to the Apparatus The Apparatus went unnoticed for some time. When the new Mr. Crime came to power, he arranged a meeting with several members of the Apparatus' upper-echelons. Mr. Crime's subordinate Panda informed them of his intentions to take over the local Outfit in the City. When one of the Apparatus men protested (the man wearing glasses), Mr. Crime's enforcer Double-Up killed him with a whip. The other men acquiesced to Mr. Crime's arrangement and left peacefully. More recently, a new organization, "The Black Hearts", whose ranks include the hideous-looking Mr. Méliès as well as the Munro Brothers, has been attempting, with some considerable success, to drive the local Outfit out of Tracy's City. Presumably, the Black Hearts' ultimate goal is to drive the entire national Apparatus out of business and take over its operations. The two groups clashed at the Wheaten family farm, where B-B Eyes (who had come to occupy the late Mr. Crime's place on the Apparatus' governing board) and his 2 enforcers (Mumbles and Double-Up) attempted to support Hy Pressure's extortion efforts. However, the Apparatus members fled after Mumbles' violent encounter with Dr. Zy Ghote. For a considerable period, this covert gang war was being waged under law enforcement's radar, but Detective Lee Ebony, returning from a deep cover assignment, revealed the ongoing struggle between the two organizations to Tracy. Additionally, the Black Hearts prepared to continue their aggression against the Appartus by recruiting the vicious killer Abner Kadaver to murder high-ranking Apparatus members, including his former colleague B-B Eyes. Notes *Much of the back-story for the Apparatus is based on deductions made by the strip's technical advisor Sgt. Jim Doherty. Sgt. Doherty has pieced together the history of the Apparatus based on specific references made in the strip, logical conclusions that can be drawn from those references, and comparing the events in the strip to analogous people and events from real life.